Justin Baldoni Defends His Men's Talk Show

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The small screen star — who appeared on soaps like The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful earlier in his career — told Glamour Magazinethat when he was about 20 or 21 years old, he was propositioned by someone with power in the industry at a health spa and felt intimidated by the overture.

"I remember there were hot tubs and steam rooms and all kinds of stuff, and it's kind of fancier people, wealthier guys. I went and jumped in the hot tub and I saw a guy kind of look over. I saw him look over at me, jump out of the other hot tub, and jump in with me, and he said, 'Oh what do you do?' And I said, 'Oh I'm an actor,' and he said, 'Oh I'm a producer,' and he started talking about all of the movies he's done and all the people he knows. He's friends with Clooney, Cheadle, and this person and this person, and he slowly started to try to get me to take off my pants because I had my bathing suit on and he was naked," Baldoni recalled.

Photo: Adam Rose/Adam Rose/The CW

"And I remember the way he did it, using his power and what he does and who he knows as a way to make me feel less than, like I wasn't going to be as successful as the other guys who'd been in the same hot tub with him, naked. I just remember that feeling and having a moment of saying, 'Well, should I do that? And where does that lead?'... I remember a split second [of thought], and then going, 'What? No,' and just leaving. I could imagine how hard and painful that must be for a woman."

Baldoni also said, however, that his experiences with sexual harassment in the industry haven't always been at the hand of other men. "I've also experienced [harassment] as a man from women of power," the actor explained. "I've had my a-- grabbed multiple times by powerful women."

As a result of his unfortunate experiences with sexual misconduct, Baldoni has been channeling his energy towards trying to help resolve the issue, by giving a TedWoman talk in New Orleans, Louisiana on the subject, for instance, and running an online talk show called Man Enough.

"I just think the system is broken, but thank God we're now at a place where, as gross as it sounds, the infected pimple is finally being popped and healing can actually begin," Baldoni added. "And then the other thing men are going to have to start doing now is recognizing when they did it and didn't realize it. I think that's when the other side of the 'Me Too' movement is 'I'm Sorry.' I guarantee at some point in my life there is a woman or two that I in some way made uncomfortable by saying something or doing something that was chauvinistic or sexist. There is one million percent probability that that exists, and all I can do is say, 'I'm sorry, I was naive, I was young, I screwed up, and I'll try to do better.'"